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Saturday, November 17, 2007

Yes, DEAR!

My wife's school has a lovely programme called DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) - in which one period of the day, all the children have to put away their textbooks and read a 'story-book'.The upshots of the programme are too many to name (and the person who started this deserves a Nobel Prize) but there is a downside as well.Some of the more addicted kids have started pestering their teachers (including my wife) at all hours for more books to read! Since about a hundred of her students stay in the same building as us, the pestering literally goes on at all hours!Since I am the certified bibliomaniac in the family, my wife promptly asked me to make a list of the books that are suitable for children in the age group of 8-12.

I immediately sat down with a pen and paper - and realised it is a lot more difficult than I thought. Simply because all the usual suspects (like Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl and even Feluda!) have already been read.Of course, my other disadvantage is that I have done 90% of my childhood reading in Bengali. But at least, some of my childhood favourites are now available in translation.So, I figured that there would still be an interesting list to be made - which would tickle the 12-year olds enough to give them a habit of a lifetime.Better than cocaine, but just as addictive...

Okay, a caveat - some of these are not strictly children's books, which simply means they are far more interesting than Enid Blyton! But, they do not have risque content either.

Swami and Friends (R K Narayan) - Narayan's best known story about a gang of kids in Malgudi talks about friendship, adventure and patriotism in understated tones and a brilliant sense of humour. Even if a 10-year-old misses out on the subtleties, he can still identify with the angry headmasters, doting grandmothers and rag-tag cricket teams. Some things just don't change...

Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Salman Rushdie) - In my humble opinion, this is Rushdie's best novel, beating Midnight's Children narrowly. It is a fairy tale about a story-teller, who loses his gift of the gab when the Sea of Stories is polluted by Chupwalas. His son, Haroun, embarks on an adventure to reclaim the Sea. In this, he is assisted by the Guppees, Prince Bolo and Princess Batcheet. How they all challenge the king of Chupwalas - Bezubaan - in the Battle of Bat-Mat-Karo is a P2C2E (Process 2 Complicated 2 Explain)!

George's Secret Key to the Universe (Stephen & Lucy Hawking) - This is the only book in the list, which I have not read. But I have read the spiritual sequel of this book when I was a little older (about 16) and The Brief History of Time was one of the most interesting books I have ever read.This time, Dr Hawking collaborates with his daughter to give a children's version of science of the universe. He has done it before and I am presuming that this one is going to be an apt primer for his more popular book.

Going Solo (Roald Dahl) - A wonderful book on the life of a fighter pilot in WWII, I am not sure if this book by Roald Dahl would be classified among his children's books (unlike the sure-shot entries like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Willy Wonka something). I read this when I was almost an adult but I remember being fascinated by the book, which manages to hold one's attention despite talking about a time of which today's children (as well as me!) have a very vague idea of. Having a fighter aircraft under your exclusive command is a thrill which translates very easily, I guess!

Fatikchand (Satyajit Ray) - Okay, this is a non-Shonku, non-Feluda book by Ray and is not one of his best-known works. It is about a boy who is kidnapped and loses his memory in an accident. He meets a juggler called Haround Al Rashid - and the two of them have a ball before the kidnappers return. And so does his memory.Ray's understanding of children, their fears and joys has been much documented. This is one of the better examples.

Tales from Shakespeare (Charles & Mary Lamb) - Before Omkara and Maqbool, this is where I got my ideas about the bard from! Written in simple English and painless prose, this is a must-read for those who get impatient with slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Actually, this is a must-read for everybody including film directors!You only have to read The Tempest to see what a fantastic film it will make.Idols (Sunil Gavaskar) - Gavaskar writes exceptionally well and there has been no accusation of ghost-writing either. This is one of his better ones, which talks about his heroes and their most endearing traits and enduring performances. It is almost devoid of prejudices and sarcasm. It was also written in the earlier part of his career, where he did not have to justify his actions as a cricketer / batsman. Kids nowadays have cricketer heroes with life span of about a month. Here's one book which talks about more durable heroes.The natural progression of this series would be Ramachandra Guha's series - Spin and Other Turns and Wickets in the East.

Vikram and Vetal / Vikramaditya's Thrones - The first one is better known (thanks to the serial and the Tortoise ad), where Vikramaditya solved a series of 25 puzzles put to him by a 'phantom' corpse. The second one is lesser known in which a shepherd demonstrates tremendous acumen whenever he sits on a hillock.Both are phenomenal examples of ingenuous problem-solving (that too in succession), starring one of the most well-known characters of Indian history - Emperor Vikramaditya.Raj Kahini (Abanindranath Tagore) - In another one of his novels, Aban Tagore described himself as "chhobi lekhey" (writes pictures). That description couldn't have been more apt.In this book, he puts together a series of stories about the valiant warriors of Rajputana and their famous resistance against invaders. The forts of Mewar, Jodhpur and Chittor come alive in his pen-pictures of the unforgettable characters. History became my favourite subject for quite some time after I read this book.

Mountain of the Moon (Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay) - I have already written about this book some time back, which is one of the most breath-taking adventures ever written.

A Brief History of Everything (Bill Bryson) - This page-turner of a book is a humorous, racy renditions of the stories behind some of the apparently boring topics in school. Bryson reconstructs the stories behind the inventions of physics, chemistry, zoology and botany in a tongue-in-cheek manner - but without compromising on facts or undermining the achievements.Wish our textbooks were written by him!

I have restricted myself to books that are easily available. Which brings me (oh no, not again!) to the tragedy of translations from Bengali (or the lack thereof).I am sure I missed millions of books suitable for children - but after leaving aside the best-seller favourites, crying out loud over lost gems and accounting for holes in my memory - this is what I would recommend for 10-year olds.

17 comments:

of all the Roald Dahls to choose from you'd choose Going Solo? I'd have thought Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant PEach, George's somethig Medicine, The Twits, Teh MInpins, The Enormous Crocodiel, would have been better.

But why quibble? You should put ALL kiddie Dahl on the list!

Then there's Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series. Arthur Ransome's PIgeon Post, E Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet, Five Children and It, The Railway Children. Lewis' Narnia books, oh...I could go on! Maybe I'll just do apost about it instead!

Very nice list! I would highly recommend a book called "Totto-Chan" by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi (original is Japanese). This is a true story and a fantastic read for kids and adults alike. I read it when I was in college and it was not available in India at that time, so I had to read from a pirated copy. Hope it is available in India now! :) I've gifted the book to several of my friends, including an English teacher here in Chicago -- and they all loved it! Here is a link.

I came across this author called E. Nesbit who writes the most irreverent chidrens' stories and fairytales, such a welcome break from stories with a moral, and brave heroes and heroines. Then there is the "William" series by Richmal Crompton... haven't seen too many copies of those. There is also another series called "Billy Bunter", much on the same lines as "William". One of my friends, Poojitha Prasad, wrote this book called "The Wrong Side Of The Bed" when she was fourteen... awesome adventure read for kids brought up on a diet of RKN, Harry Potter and Artemis fowl, more so coz the author herself is such a person.

Is good old Biggles ( by Capt.W.E.Johns) obsolete? Really enjoyed those, as well as William, Dahl's stories and others mentioned in the post and in other comments.Target magazine used to have some really wonderful stories by Indian authors including Geeta Dharmarajan and Vatsala Kaul. They also had good compilations and annuals. Maybe they could bring out a new edition of their stories.Thompson Press also used to have wonderful stories for younger children, like Babban Hajaam and Adrak the Ginger Cat.Lynne Reid Banks "The Indian in the Cupboard" was good reading.Oh- some of Pratap Sharma's children's books are good.Ranjit Lal's "The Life and Times of Altu Faltu" is a great read for both children and adults.Some of Ruskin Bond appeals.

@ SB: My problem with the children's books by Roald Dahl is that I read them when I was an adult! So, I guess I chose the one which was most 'adult'.

@ Nilendu: Thanks for the partisan-sounding true comment.

@ All: I have deliberately not added any of the classics to the list because schools make you read most of them and you hate it at the end of it.

@ March Hare: Why not Buro Angla? Why not all of Leela Majumdar? Or Ashapurna Devi? Or at least ten other Bengali authors? Because they are not available in translation... I added only the ones I could find in translation. Why not Ray? Because he is classic!

@ All: I have deliberately not added any of the classics to the list because schools make you read most of them and you hate it at the end of it.

I know what you mean! But I didn't know schools these days required kids to read "Totto-Chan"!! 15 years ago, nobody knew anything about this book! Honestly, I am really thrilled and pleasantly surprised to hear that, if it is really true! :-)